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Brian Sowerby from County Durham has been speaking to ITV News about his disappointment that he was failed by the NHS 111 service.

He rang the 111 telephone number after a serious lung infection made it difficult for him to breathe, but says that he was questioned for 45 minutes - before he hung up.

He also says that a paramedic did not arrive for an hour.

A spokesperson from the region’s 12 clinical commissioning groups, who commission the NHS 111 and ambulance service for the North East, have released the following statement in response to Mr Sowerby's complaint.

"We are really sorry that Mr Sowerby did not feel he received a good service from the local NHS.

"We hope that Mr Sowerby’s condition has improved and he is feeling better. If he wishes to have the incident looked at more formally, we would advise Mr Sowerby to contact either the ambulance service or his local clinical commissioning group who can respond to him personally.

"As commissioners of these services we welcome any feedback and would always undertake a review of concerns that are raised by patients and the public. "

The new non-emergency NHS advice line is "steadily improving" health officials have said, after publishing new figures today.

But the number is still experiencing teething problems, with 66,000 of the 514,000 calls answered in April taking more than a minute to answer.

An NHS England spokeswoman said:

The data published today on the performance of NHS 111 in April 2013 showed the service is steadily improving and is highly rated by those who use it - 92% were very or fairly satisfied with their NHS 111 experience.

The latest figures for the NHS England's 111 service have been published today. According to the report, for the period between April 2011 to March 2013, 92% of callers were very or fairly satisfied with their NHS111 experience.